Liz, I guess it boils down to it being the only option you have if you find yourself in that situation. I don't trust it, but what else can I do? Can't get milk out of breasts that didn't produce it and like I said earlier, not everyone has the luxury of endless lactating women at their beck and call to give them milk on a casual basis, let alone a full time one. I never did - not once over the past 8.5 years have I ever had someone who could give me breast milk. And don't forget that even though it is not on the top of their list, even the WHO sanctions its use. They aren't that foolish to not see that it does have its place - far too big a place atm for sure, but it is there. I think if women had a choice between ebm and abm, then why can't she be assured that the ebm is of the highest quality, otherwise where is the incentive to choose it over the abm? see what I mean?

And maybe if there was an incentive to donate, there wouldn't be such a huge shortage of blood would there? Same as with ebm banks- not everyone who is lactating would be able to donate, or even willing to donate. I'm sure there would be women who would not entertain the idea of donating milk, just as there are those that choose not to donate blood.

I think a lot of the cagey-ness comes from the situation arrising from the need for it in the first place. If you have a situation where a mum can't continue to bf for a short time so chooses to get friends to give her ebm, then thats a completely different situation to someone who really struggled with bf from the word go only to have it not work out and is carrying tons of mother guilt - to suggest to someone like that that she must use ebm from another woman, well!, you may as well just slap her in the face, because that just adds to the guilt kwim? And I think that needs to be respected a little more than it has been in this thread. If someone says they do not want to use it, so be it, that's their choice and I don't feel that is being respected enough.